Agility Class

One very valuable thing I picked up already at class was that I was not consistently "painting the line" 2 feet ahead of my dog.  I saw that improving this had already helped a lot. In general, focusing on consistent arm motion in terms of the height of one's arm and the distance in front of the dog seems to have side benefits of handing more consistently.  I have also noticed last night with myself and other handlers how often assuming a dog was committed or assuming that an obstacle was easy is the kiss of death!  Focusing on my arm motion seemed to help stay consistently connected with my dog for the whole course. 


Wyatt ran pretty well last night though he slowed down quite a bit for his last run.  It was very hot and he did a walk and a run during the day.  I am still perplexed that he wants to run in class but not at home.  I am scheduling an appointment with our sports vet, Julie Roos.

Deaf Dogs Part 2

In doing some research on the issue of allowing deaf dogs to compete in AKC Rally, Obedience, and Agility, I found out that the breed club for Dalmations, the Dalmation Club of America, requires breeders to euthanize deaf puppies.

As with any breed of dog, there are a few things you should be aware of when choosing a Dalmatian as regards faults of health. One is congenital deafness. This occurs in Dalmatians at the rate of about 12%, although whole litters are often born with no deaf pups. However, ethical breeders have their litters tested for hearing impairment at a professional facility by a trained technician, when such facilities are available to them. Any puppies proven deaf are euthanized. The test, called a BAER (brainstem auditory evoked response) test, measures the hearing response of each ear on each puppy. The tester then provides a printout of each puppy's test, which is then given to you at the time of purchase. In this way, you know your puppy hears.

Do not adopt a completely deaf dog even if it is given to you, as you will be letting yourself in for a lot of work and probable heartbreak: work, because the dog cannot hear you, and for all but the most experienced handlers is rendered untrainable; probable heartbreak, because if the dog ever escapes from you, he cannot hear traffic. You can conclude the ending. The deaf dog leads a sadly neurotic life, as every hand on his fur or step on the floor startles him because he cannot hear. Most deaf dogs become so fearful and timid that they must be put to sleep anyway; it is better to do so right after the BAER test proves the dog deaf, before a family is attached to the dog. Should you somehow procure a deaf Dalmatian, the breeder is obliged, by any code of ethics, to replace the puppy with a hearing one or to refund your money and take the dog back. 

On the other hand, there are numerous people who have raised deaf dogs very successfully and argue strongly against this policy.  The deaf dogs can be spayed or nuetered so that's not a good reason to put them down. 


Rescue Story 

Myths 

I was shocked to discover this DCA policy.  I don't have tons of experience with deaf dogs but the one I see in agility who runs regularly seems wonderful and has a great partnership with its owner.  What do you think?  

  

Wyatt Status

I just can't figure out what is going on with Wyatt.  I practiced agility in the yard with him yesterday morning and he was very skittish and not into it.  He seemed especially spooked with tunnels.  Also, in the house, he jumps off the couch as I approach, which is usually a sign of injury for him.  I took him to our first class bringing Patriot along as a "backup dog."  I figured there was a small chance Wyatt got stung by a bee or something in a tunnel in the front yard and that was causing the problem.  I was surprised that he ran like a champ for all of class.  I ran Patriot first, which, let us say, increases him motivation but still.  I am going to rest him, one walk a day, no running, no agility at home and see what happens.  I had been doing some longer 50 minute runs.  That may have been too much.   More about the actual practice in the next blog entry. 

Deaf Dogs

I was reading that the AKC was considering letting deaf dogs compete in rally, agility, and obedience.  I say,  "Let them play."  The few deaf dogs I have seen definitely had a harder time succeeding in agility in spite of talented handlers.  They just don't have access to as much information.  Some claim they have an advantage because they can tune out distractions.  That's just not what I saw.  Also, the visual distractions may be heightened.  Besides, who cares?   99% of us are there to qualify and support any and all dogs that can qualify.  Especially handicapped dogs.  Though some breeds have deafness issues, agility, rally, and obedience accept breed disqualifications (not to mention mixed breeds) so it's not about breeding.  

Wyatt Back to Normal?

Wyatt seemed much better yesterday yesterday in terms of wanting to do agility.  I did bring him out to the field on a loose lead and he was fine after that.  Still not sure why he did not want to play for a few days but he does seem a little skittish still.  Could be all the tick checks and hygiene stuff. 

I am practicing the switch part of the last course I posted, trying to get it more smooth and flowing.  "Painting the line" with my hand seems to help. 

Scaredy Cat Dog

Wyatt is so funny.  He had a little hygiene problem yesterday after pooping.  I cleaned his rear with some baby wipes.  Well, it must of hurt or something because he would run away from me all night.  I tried to do some agility and he ran away too.  That worried me because it could have indicated an ouch.  But then I remembered why he was avoiding me.

Anyway, I did eventually coax him into doing some agility and he did great.  I did the following course, which was similar to Sunday's NADAC Chances course.  The map is not to scale but I believe I was at least 30 feet away laterally from the weaves, which is great.  I don't always have confidence that we can do these distances but yesterday proved that we can.  I did have trouble sometimes sending out from jump 3  to jump 4.  However, I was able to consistently send him out even if he stopped and looked back for direction.  Something I have learned this year is not to give an out command if you want your dog to straight (for example from jump number 4 to the number 5 weaves.  This has the opposite effect and brings your dog into you.  Just keep running parallel to your dog. 

NADAC May 2010

I felt relaxed and not nervous all weekend.  However, the weather was a distraction.  It was very cold and rainy Saturday and very cold and VERY windy Sunday.  Not too many Qs but Wyatt got a regular Q he needs for his championship Saturday and a tunnelers Q Sunday.  Patriot got a jumpers Q Sunday. 

Patriot was very slow Saturday so I was not sure if he was not over his injury or just did not like the cold rain.  It was the latter because he was very fast on Sunday, so fast he was hard to control.  However, I just ran him happy and ignored any off courses.  That is a wise thing in most cases but it is especially important to keep Patriot happy.  I should be practicing with him more.

Wyatt and I had a bunch of real close heartbreaker NQs.  We missed time by less than a second in weavers and Touch and Go Saturday.  On Sunday, he ran by the very last jump in jumpers.  That would have been his Superior title.  I may have pulled him off.  On Saturday, we got the very hardest parts of Chances, which we really need, but missed the "easy" last part, which I largely ignored during the walk through because I thought it was a no-brainer.  Had a nice Q and first in tunnelers Sunday.  The video is below.  No regular classes Sunday because of high winds. 

Chances

Here's part of an elite chances course from our last trial.  The line that can't be crossed is after the "first" curved tunnel.  We got most of this including a discrimination of an A-Frame and Tunnel after the last jump from a large distance.  In this course, you take the curved tunnel and then go around the outside staying behind the 0 line.  I did great moderating my steps and leaving plenty of room to drive out to the first 2 jumps.  People that did not save room had trouble driving out to the first 2 jumps.  Wyatt took the tunnel back towards me.  The mistake I made was trying to give an "out" command after the second tunnel.  That drew his attention towards me and to the tunnel.  Successful teams kept running parallel to the dog.  I also found that this worked at home after a little practice. 

NADAC Trial This Weekend

I am taking Wyatt and Patriot to a NADAC trial 20 minutes away in Greenfield, MA this weekend.  I am looking forward to it.  I have been working with Wyatt on driving to the end of contacts and also on distance.  Biggest thing in distance is definitely on my end.  If I don't cue him early enough or in the right way, we don't get it.  I also worked on a specific challenge I'll write up later.  I need to create a little course map for it. 

Contact Confusion

I made a mistake yesterday.  I have been working with Wyatt on driving to the end of contacts more.  This used to be his default behavior until I found that it just was not carrying over to trials.  In trials, I changed over to moving with him to the end of the contact.  However, this does not always work in Chances, when the contact is ahead of the line that you can't cross.  While he is driving to the end OK at home with targets, I was a little unclear yesterday what I was expecting.  You really have to be 100% sure in your mind in agility what you are expecting before you go in.  Today, I am going to go back to our old way and think about changing over when he can drive to end again without targets. 

Learning and Serialization

I saw a phenomenon with Aidan that I also see in myself, particularly in dog agility.  I recently picked up a nice John Deere play tractor at the Conway Mall, also know as the dump.  I ordered and installed a new battery and it works great.  When he was first learning to drive it, I noticed that he had difficulty steering and operating the gas peddle at same time. 

I notice this in agility too when I learn a new task or when I am really focused in one part of my handling.  It seems to take a comfort level before you can do many things at once and/or rapidly switch your attention to the many aspects of dog agility that must take place simultaneously.

Wyatt Stress Part 2

A lot of people provided suggestions for dealing with Wyatt's stress.  Thank you.  I have been thinking about it and reflecting on the 7 years I have had training this dog, all of it wonderful and a great learning experience.  Here's a list of things that I could do:

1)  Try to increase motivation.  The issue I have with this is that he is very motivated already.  But people generally think that if you can increase motivation even more, that will help when they get to the trial setting.  In class last week, I did see one technique that could help with freeze on the drop on recall problem, which is to have a helper hold the dog while you run away from the dog.  You also run away when the dog is coming to you.  Wyatt shot out of the stay like a cannon.  I am working on some variations of this for solo training.

2)  My wife has some meds she uses for public speaking that help with anxiety.  I may try this so Wyatt goes not pick up on my jitters.  I can also try peppermint and not allowing him to lick my face before going on, which is something he tends to do.  I wonder if there is an equivalent for dogs too.  I could also use my iPod before our run and not watch other people. 

3)  Try to fine tune Wyatt's routine to reduce his stress.  Some ideas here are:  trialing in the only the best, most familiar places, trying to trial more and do rally too (this will be hard with my schedule constraints.)  Trying to fine tune our warm up routine to reduce stress.  Go to as many matches as possible.  There aren't very many in New England but...

So, basically, there are 3 areas to work on:  increase motivation, decrease my stress, decrease Wyatt's stress. 

Patriot HIT

I learned a few months after the fact that Patriot won High in Trial at an AKC obedience trial a few months ago.  We won Novice B after a runoff, which was a thrill.  It was starting to snow and I was running late so I left.  I am not even sure it registered that we could have won High in Trial.  Anyway, what a thrill.  My obedience teacher still has the ribbon.  It was a small trial but still, how many whippets win HIT at an all breed trial.  I am very proud of Patriot.  According to AKC rules, he can't show in Novice B anymore, which is too bad.  I was really just bringing him along as company for Wyatt and to give him something to do.  Might have to work more on his open skills.  His drop is not too good and he is not the most enthusiastic retriever but his heeling is pretty good and he has all the basics for open. 

Good, Cheap Tunnel Bags

Here's my $2 tunnel bags.  Get some velcro strips from Home Depot (thanks to Lynn S.  for this tip.)  Fill some kitty litter bottles with sand or water and you are good to go.  I was thinking of spending $100 for a commercial set but these seem just as good for home use.

Driving to the End of Contacts

I saw yesterday, that Wyatt really need work on driving to the end of contacts.  He is fine if I am beside or ahead of him but tends to stop early when I am behind him.  This has been a real problem in NADAC Chances when there is a contact with the line behind or at the contact.  I got out some targets but he only did well with the big white ones so back to the drawing board with big, white targets fading out to clear and smaller ones and different colors. 

Stress

I am little frustrated with Wyatt and obedience.  He learns so quickly and does SO well at home and class yet we can not Q at a trial.  Yesterday, he did not sit once for heeling in open and novice and froze on both recalls and went down on his out of sight sit.  He did go down once for a sit when I gave a second command but that did not help for the rest of the novice class.  I thought I would try it.  I think I have been a little misguided in my focus, which has been at tweaking stuff he has been failing on in the ring.  The real issue is stress. He know how to do everything quite well.  More ideas on that in my next entry.

Patriot did very well.  He is a much more confident dog than Wyatt.  But he is much harder to train and still does not do a great drop and is not very motivated to retrieve.  But he had a very nice novice run with a 185.  He did a down when I said sit on the long sit so I had to quickly get him back up and touched his collar so I lost 3 points there somewhere. 

Patriot and Wyatt went charging out of an open gate when we got home and Patriot got injured, probably by running into something.  He is OK but spend the night at the animal hospital. It was a on the bottom of his chest. 

Obedience Saturday in Taunton

I have Wyatt in Novice B and Open A and Patriot in Novice B Saturday in Taunton, MA.  Things to remember for Wyatt. 

• Stay up and happy.
• Don't touch him too much for a reward in the ring.
• Keep things moving especially for the recall.  Move quickly to the end of the ring and turn around and give the command as soon as possible.
• If he freezes on the initial "come" part of the recall, quickly move back to him and give an oops word and move on.  Keep the "come" loud and happy.  Be firm for the "drop" command.  Don't explain ahead of time to the judge that you are not going to give a second command.

Open A

I was very happy with Wyatt in Open A AKC obedience last weekend.  His heeling was not hist best.  I did not get one automatic sit but I was VERY HAPPY he did not freeze on the initial recall.  He did not drop though.  He just stopped in a standing position.  Very odd.  That has not happened before.  He did freeze in the Novice Recall.  But I had a brain freeze and it took me a while to give the "come" command.  I am wondering if I should issue the command as soon as I can and/or proof a delay in issuing the command.  I have been treating more for automatic sits and the recall part of drop on recall.  Wyatt passed all four sits (open and novice).  He did reseat himself a bit in the Open out of sight sit.  Patriot did very well, lagged a bit in Novice off leash heeling but ended up with a Q and a 185 1/2. 

Skilled

Well, I decided to switch Wyatt to Skilled.   He can jump 12 inches.  NADAC allows you to convert Proficient legs to Skilled Legs.  I have some mixed feelings.  The NATCH was my goal for a long time.  Not that the MEDAL is really any different but it does feel like a little bit of a loss.  But my goal has really been to get a second agility championship for Wyatt.  So a MEDAL does that.  For those not familiar with NADAC, the MEDAL is, in essence, a NATCH for veteran dogs.  So even though Wyatt may have been able to complete the requirements for a NATCH at 16 inches, I will worry a lot less and he can probably do agility for longer and be more comfortable and confident doing it.

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